{"id":196790,"date":"2019-01-07T23:23:12","date_gmt":"2019-01-08T04:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=196790"},"modified":"2019-01-07T23:23:12","modified_gmt":"2019-01-08T04:23:12","slug":"company-suspends-operations-at-mount-polley-mine-due-to-declining-copper-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/01\/07\/company-suspends-operations-at-mount-polley-mine-due-to-declining-copper-prices\/","title":{"rendered":"Company suspends operations at Mount Polley mine due to declining copper prices"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: Upper Hazeltine Creek in June 2017 (Photo<\/a>: Imperial Metals\/Website<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C. \u2014 Imperial Metals Corp. says it is suspending operations at its Mount Polley mine in south-central British Columbia due to declining copper prices.<\/p>\n

The gold and copper mine was the site of a 2014 tailings dam collapse that was one of the largest environmental disasters in the province’s history.<\/p>\n

Imperial Metals said in a news release Monday that the suspension plan includes milling of low grade stockpiles which is expected to extend operations to the end of May 2019.<\/p>\n

There will be no impact to the mine’s ongoing environmental monitoring and remediation program, it said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFull operations will resume once the economics of mining at Mount Polley improve,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

The company did not immediately respond to a request for more details, including how many jobs would be affected by the suspension of operations at the mine northeast of Williams Lake, B.C.<\/p>\n

The union representing Mount Polley workers, United Steelworkers Local 1-2017, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Imperial Metals said in August that unionized workers at Mount Polley had voted in favour of a new three-year contract, after initiating strike action in May following a lockout by the company.<\/p>\n

Bryan Cox, president of the Mining Association of B.C., said the mine is a significant employer in the Cariboo region and it also creates indirect jobs including supplier positions across the province.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s really a provincewide impact when there’s impact to our operations in B.C.,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is big news for the province.\u201d<\/p>\n

There has been volatility in the copper market for some time and the price is near its lowest point in about 18 months, Cox said.<\/p>\n

B.C. is the No. 1 copper producer in Canada, but it’s a global industry and tax structures need to be as competitive as possible to protect local jobs, he said.<\/p>\n

But he added there is huge opportunity for the commodity in the long-term, as more parts of the world transition to a lower-carbon economy.<\/p>\n

It takes up to four times more copper to build an electric car than a conventional car, for example, and it’s also used in wind turbines and solar panels, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we make this transition, we’re going to need more copper,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The tailings dam collapse sent 24 million cubic metres of mine waste and sludge into nearby waterways and the mine did not resume full operations for nearly two years.<\/p>\n

B.C.’s Conservation Officer Service launched an investigation of the disaster but a three-year deadline for provincial charges in the case passed in 2017.<\/p>\n

Engineers and Geoscientists B.C. announced in September that three engineers involved in the design, construction and monitoring of the tailings storage facility that collapsed will face disciplinary hearings this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C. \u2014 Imperial Metals Corp. says it is suspending operations at its Mount Polley mine in south-central British …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":196791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-196790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-laura-kane","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}